Spring is Here

Please forgive me for failing to update.

All is well!

Rosalie "graduated" to scans every six months (instead of three month intervals, and then four month intervals) as she has had three years of clear scans. This is the first time we have had six months with no scan and her next one is on Thursday.

The growth hormone stimulation showed that Rosalie is surprisingly producing a good amount of growth hormone on her own and therefore doesn't need replacement therapy. The radiation to her spine will give her a "short sitting height" as the radiation has some permanent effects on bone development. We can already see this difference between her and her classmates.

Rosalie continues to enjoy school. While she has made enormous strides with her balance and coordination it is still a challenge for her to keep up with her class and we are so proud of the effort she puts forth each and every day. She likes using her walker but we would like to see her using her walking sticks more. They force her to use more of her own balance rather than leaning on her walker. But Rosalie still prefers the walker and has gotten much better at navigating with it. She is also often seen just holding one of our hands. She loves music and rhyming and often comes up with songs of her own. She has asked us if she can take piano lessons so we are looking into it. She continues a heavy dose of physical and occupational therapy - all of which are done outside school hours as I don't like her being pulled from the classroom.

Susannah is loving kindergarten. School agrees with her and she has a terrific class. She participates in swimming, soccer, and ice skating.

Teddy is a great little boy. He says all those cute things you hear from a two+ year old. Yesterday in the car . . ."Mommy! I have a skeleton in my body!" He was so excited to share this with me.

Mark and I continue to enjoy our world in San Francisco. It's one of those "make new friends but keep the old" parts of the world where I feel blessed by a set of lifelong friends but am constantly meeting new people as well. We are very happy that the baseball season has started up again (great listening for my Reibel family van service) and the 5th season of Mad Men is another welcome diversion. Mark continues to be able to work from home and I work at Clarendon Elementary School one day a week.

Each day is truly a blessing.

Love,
Carolyn
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Here are some photos to review highlights of the past six months.

Why do we never take photos of everyday life? It's always the holidays that get coverage :)

Enjoy . . .

Christmastime in the Catskills - Gingerbread Houses, Angry Birds Finale to the Gingerbread Houses (kids threw angry birds at the houses before everyone departed), Cousin Line-up by Age




Susannah's Sixth Birthday Luau - February 16, 2012



Spring Break 2012 - Partying with Nonnie and Poppy!











Easter Weekend 2012 - Tahoe